Celeriac Soup

Celeriac, though the ugliest duckling in the brood of ugly ducklings that is root vegetables, has one characteristic that pardons it entirely from its optic misdemeanours – its distinctive flavour. With a peppery quality similar to that of stem celery it’ll come as no surprise that celeriac is actually a variety of celery, cultivated across several continents for its enlarged hypocotyl (no prizes for guessing which bit that is). As with most root vegetables, celeriac can be prepared in any number of ways, though it is most commonly found in soup as a result of its powerful flavour and pleasing texture. It you’d like to try it in another form, you could try adding it to my root vegetable mash.

If you’ve taken a sneak peek at the recipe below before reading this paragraph (shame on you) you’ll have quickly realised that it is far from vegan. However, all is not lost for the vegetable fetishists amongst you as it is perfectly acceptable to forego the cream and butter and a little more water and another small potato. Of course, things won’t be quite the same but the flavour of the soup will remain constant and astound you with its peppery verve.

Historically, I’ve never celebrated St. Valentine’s Day here – the whole idea seems to have become a bit forced – last year’s recipe was for olive tapenade. On this day you must either wine and dine your significant other, or fall into a self-inflicted depressive reverie and ingest inordinate amounts of chocolate. The weight of social expectation to do one of these two things has become a little daft – why not love one another equally every day and go for a far cheaper, more pleasant, meal the day after? Still, if you insist on adhering to this now absurd social convention* you could do worse than make my delicious chocolate truffles! Either way, bon appetit!

*Valentine’s Day doesn’t actually cause me as much consternation as I may suggest.

Celeriac Soup {recipe}

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, finely diced

• 2 sticks of celery, finely diced

• 2 medium potatoes, diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed

• ½ a large celeriac, peeled and cubed

• 1 litre vegetables stock

• 150ml single cream

• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

• A knob of butter

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Heat a knob of butter and dash of olive oil in a large soup pan. Lightly fry the onions, celery and garlic until translucent, before adding the potato and celeriac.

2. Tip in the vegetables stock and simmer gently until all of the vegetables are soft through. Blend the soup using a stick blender or food processor, pour in the cream and parsley and season to taste. Serve with a drizzle of rapeseed oil and a little bread.

Cost: Celeriac must be one of the cheapest root vegetables around – the large half I bought set me back a mere 65p. Let’s face it, root vegetables are generally inexpensive which is why they make fantastic ingredients and jolly frugal soup. Indeed, the entire pot which is probably way too much for four should set one back no more than around £2.50!

This looks wonderful. It’s a constant surprise to me just how many vegetables are known by different names in the U.S. – it may help aumcchildren (above) that celeriac is known as celery root here, and I can certainly get it in California.

So many people rave about celeriac but I, personally, can’t stand it! It’s a bit like the Emperor’s new clothes with me…even Nigel Slater lauds this starchy chunk of mild celery. I don’t mind celery in soup or eaten with hummus but that’s about the extent of my appreciation for celery as well. I reacon vegans could use one of the amazing cream subs (or even sour cream subs) that are rife throughout the vegan community to add body and flavour to this soup however, as gorgeous as it looks…I might need to add sweet potato, pumpkin, 15 more potatoes and perhaps the vegan equivalent of a ham hock (half a bottle of smoked paprika) to minimise the celeriac flavour to allow me to eat it ;). Not often I diss one of your recipes Frugal, but just warning you, anything with okra is going to end up in the same basket! 😉

Sounds nice. We had celeriac last night in one of my favorite meals. It involves boiling the cubed celeriac, then mixing in a dressing of wholegrain mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper and a bit of sugar or honey and then wilting a whole bunch of spinach into it… Then serving with salmon. It’s lovely like that, mashing it keeps some of the texture as well as distinctive flavour.

What a great recipe and, I am jealous. It turns out Italians don’t eat celery root. After not finding any in supermarkets I started scouring the farmers’ markets, showing the farmers pictures of celery roots on my phone and, alas, they don’t sell it. So sad, I was already dreaming up a celery root gnocchi recipe to go with some wine-poached beef … and now you post photos of this super silky looking celery root soup … and I can’t have any 🙁

Thanks! It never occurred to me that it wasn’t a root. In Germany we don’t even call it a root, it is just referred to as ‘Sellerie’ (not to be confused with ‘Stangensellerie’ which refers to the green bits), but when I moved to the UK I got used to calling it celery root like everyone around me. And it was only your reply which prompted me to have a quick look around the web and yes, disappearances aside it is actually a ‘corm’ or swollen stem, how interesting!

Celeriac Soup of any kind is great. I make it all the time using plenty of Green Veggies and Parsley, Onion, Garlic with Chia, Spirulina, Hemp Flour(Ladies should add Maca as well) added when I put it all into the Vitamiser and whizz it all up although I would get a good one like a Vitamix or preferably an Optimum which has even more power than the Vitamix then you can do Seeds and Grains.
Cheers,
Walter

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